By Kari Negri, Chief Executive Officer, SKY Properties, Inc.

• “Hi Kari, what Spring Cleaning tips and ideas do you have for my buildings?”

There are many cost-effective things you can do to keep your building in great shape. Here are a few Spring Cleaning and maintenance tips to help keep your property well-maintained and attractive.

Tip 1: Clean lobby, entrances and common areas – Summer is high turnover time; Now is a great time to improve curb appeal. Start getting entrances and common areas looking their best: remove all trash, remove common area furniture that is no longer presentable, make sure and do thorough dusting, vacuuming, and mopping. Clean all common area windows. Update the bulletin board with new info. Consider inexpensive artwork for your lobby area, make sure the required signage is up to date.

Tip 2: Pressure wash exterior – Remove gum from walkways, pressure wash both the walkways and building exteriors, stucco, fences and gates. Make sure to inspect parking garages for engine stains. Note that oil stains may require pretreatment and a hot pressure washer. You can rent pressure wash machines from your local tool rental company or hardware store.

Tip 3: Touchup paint – In keeping with staying on top of curb appeal, do a thorough once over on all exterior paint and cracks. This does not mean you have to paint your entire building (unless it needs it) but get the front and everything obvious. Sometimes a small color change can make a big difference.

Tip 4: Check on sprinkler timers and refresh landscape – Double check to see that your sprinklers are turning on and off according to current daylight schedules, or drought tolerant environment. Consider planting colorful flowers in beds or planters near the entrance or around your sign. Attractive greenery brightens up any property entrance and common areas. Your gardener can refresh flower beds, and you can also purchase large, affordable planters with seasonal arrangements at your local home improvement store. Pops of seasonal color will create a more inviting vibe if you have vacancies as well as help you look sharp for the upcoming busy-leasing season.

Tip 5: Building lights and outdoor areas – Make sure all common area lights are functioning and turning on and off at the proper times. We like to use photocells for this so that no one forgets to reset, and they come on automatically. Add or refresh patio furniture and benches in courtyards and replace pillows with current trending colors. String up outdoor lights for a fun, inviting feeling in the evenings.

Tip 6: Test Smoke Alarms and inspect air conditioning filters – This is a great opportunity to inspect your rental units, although you should be doing this twice per year anyway, to stay on top of unit maintenance. Test your smoke alarms, change out batteries, if necessary, test all appliances, and don’t forget to look for slow leaks (which can become very expensive) under sinks and around toilets. Make sure all units maintain properly working CO₂ alarms (if needed). Finally, all air conditioning filters should be cleaned or changed.

Tip 7: Spring cleaning drive – Offer your residents free dumpsters or junk-hauling days. Encourage tenants to declutter and donate gently used items. There are free services from the city for removal of bulky items as well as e-waste.

Tip 8: Community event – Host a spring social like a barbeque, lemonade stand, or outdoor movie night. A decent projector and large screen set for showing movies in your pool or patio area are very affordable and make for a fun and low-cost tenant event.

Kari Negri is the Chief Executive Officer of Sky Property Management and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles. Do you have a question for me? Please send your questions and comments to me at Kari@SKYprop.LA. Watch the web video series to this feature at www.GetSky.net.

“Ask Kari” is a monthly, Question & Answer feature from Kari Negri. Kari has two decades of property management experience, is a featured speaker at many industry trade shows, such as AAGLA’s annual trade show, and is the CEO of SKY Properties, Inc. in Los Angeles. Please submit your question today: Kari@SKYprop.LA Watch the web video series to this feature and get more tips on property management at www.GetSky.net